Fox Hunting

Fox hunting is often thought of as "a primarily British activity in which trained dogs pursue Red Foxes, followed by human hunters who are usually on horses but sometimes on foot". That's how our beloved Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia describes this traditional equestrian activity which divides opinions around the world.

That was also my vision of the matter until last Monday when I witnessed this weird performance (check some photos from http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=minkki&s=rec) on our courtyard. That afternoon special included two older men (with beer guts), lots of different equipments (mostly nets) and about a half of the recidence's staff. Oh, and of course two red foxes. Apparently these two wild creatures had decided to abandon their former recidence (the bushes on the other side of the street) and move to our garden.

As you can guess, that wasn't tolerated by management and so The Great Fox Hunt began. Around midday on Monday our quad was all about the action. The crowd included these two aforesaid gentlemen, our housing manager, one of the cleaners and also our security guard. They were armed with different kind of nets and tools, and even rake played a part of this classic fight against the nature. The tactics was simply: all of them were running around the yard with their equipments trying to catch the fox. Well, quite obvious, the result wasn't the one hoped for: men got tired and the foxes ran free.

After several long shots they finally managed to caught the bigger one of them. Then they decided to take a break and smoke some cigarettes (which are very helpful especially when you are out of breath). Within 20 minutes it all started again with one exception: there was only one fox to catch this time. Well, the things carried on as usual: several men and a fox all over the place. Eventually after many frustrating moments the last fox standing was caught as well and The Great Hunt was over.

According to that security guard the foxes are city foxes living in the bushes across the street. After catching they were taken to the vet for a check and then released. So the result of The Great Hunt is this: the foxes are back in our hoods and now we can just hope they don't decide to squad our yard again.